ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - More than 7,000 convicts were released from Kurdistan Region correctional facilities last year, a senior official reported, with continued overcrowding in prisons continuing to pose a major challenge for authorities.
Ihsan Abdulrahman Baban, the head of Kurdistan Region's correctional facilities, said at a press conference in Erbil on Tuesday that 7,152 convicts were “released and returned to their families after completing their legal sentences."
Over 8,500 convicts were admitted to adult, women’s and juvenile detention facilities in Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok provinces in 2025, Baban reported. Nearly 10,000 family visits were facilitated for inmates.
Condition release was granted to 1,260 convicts, while 57 were freed through pardons. Authorities also approved 306 home leave permits and provided family visitation services to 9,950 inmates.
Baban said rehabilitation efforts included 400 on-site training courses and seminars for staff and convicts, along with 168 religious lectures. Drug addiction support included health services for 406 prisoners and 236 activities.
Nearly 630 convicts are currently attending schools inside correctional facilities, while inmates visited libraries a total of 73,069 times.
Ongoing overcrowding challenges
The releases come amid growing warnings from officials and human rights bodies that correctional facilities in the Kurdistan Region are operating far beyond their intended capacities.
Six correctional facilities — two each in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok — designed for 3,300 inmates total are severely overcrowded and currently hold around 6,000 people.
Last month, Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Kwestan Mohammed told Rudaw that some prisons are at nearly triple their capacity.
"The major correctional facilities in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok were built to accommodate only 909 inmates each," she said. "Currently, we have 1,736 convicts in Sulaimani, 2,216 in Erbil and 1,449 in Duhok."
Mohammed also warned that overcrowding has forced authorities to keep convicted prisoners in police stations. In Erbil alone, around 350 individuals are serving out their sentences in Interior Ministry facilities due to overcrowding.
"This is a violation of the convicts' rights," she said.
Tavga Omer, legal affairs director at the Kurdistan Region’s Human Rights Commission, told Rudaw last month that the current infrastructure is inadequate "because these centers cannot handle such a large number of convicts."
She added that overcrowding "has called into question the effectiveness of the rehabilitation system within these facilities."
Mohammed expressed hope that a proposed general amnesty law could ease pressure on the system by housing about half of the convicts.
Longer-term, the ministry has proposed building a new 5,000-inmate correctional facility.
"Land has been allocated for the project, but the cost is $50 million, and the budget has not been provided yet," the minister said.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment